Hi everyone! This time, I return with Chapter 4 of this story! =D Sorry for the fairly long wait! I had a minor case of writer's block again and it was a bit tiring writing this… .
Blitz: ::smiling:: Yes.
Hmm… You're feeling less homicidal today. Why?
Blitz: ::still smiling:: I'm letting you off today because I get a cameo in this chapter. However, you can expect at least a Tempest or Shine Plasma if you leave off at the fourth cliffhanger in a row. Be glad that it's not another Spark Plasma.
Ooookay… First, I have some… news.
Blitz: Well, make them quick.
Firstly, I changed the title of the story (duh). And erm, I changed the Adepts' weapons from before, because I replayed TLA and felt more comfortable with the recent file. Sorry about it! And I've altered the previous chapters, too. Now, the reviews.
Granite: ::the same as always; somehow hands reviews over:: Mercury apologizes if your penname isn't here; these were the only reviewers when she checked the review page.
Dark Ice Dragon: Uh… yeah, but I also have a little surprise for them. Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Vyctori: Uh oh. Someone else who hates cliffhangers (like most people, anyway). Thanks for the compliments! 'You Suck' actually flamed Midnight C and Yoshimi Takahashi? Gosh. Thanks again. Uh, you prefer Piers? That may be a bit of a problem…
Yoshimi Takahashi: Thank you! Er, actually, he isn't going to be VERY improved from before, the Adepts are… Well, I'll let you find out yourself. But, there is going to be a *little* surprise in this chapter, as I said when I replied to Dark Ice Dragon's review. Thank you for the compliment again! And I'm not going to deny that the cliffhangers happen on a regular basis.
Blitz: You had better NOT put another terrible and evil cliffhanger in the story unless you want a bit of a Tempest attack today.
Granite: And Grand Gaia!
Sleet: You can't forget Freeze Prism.
Eep. I'm going to be in hospital after this…
The Faction's Lord: Thanks! But cliffhangers add the all-important genre of suspense! Hopefully, you and the other readers will find it interesting, because there's the battle in this chapter!
EchoKazul: Thank you again for reviewing, Echo! I also wonder how Camelot came up with that name anyway…
With that done, let's begin the story before Blitz fries me with Shine Plasma.
Sleet: MercuryAdept does not own any part of Golden Sun at all; Camelot and Nintendo do.
Oh, and the idea of reviving previous enemies was from Omniflyer's fic, Faces of War. (Seriously, you should read it if you haven't.)
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Chapter 4- Another Unexpected Surprise
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"Toadonpa?!" Garet exclaimed, his jaw dropping on seeing the blue toad again. "But… but we defeated him! Way back in Lunpa when we freed Master Hammet!"
"Ah yes… You certainly did…" Dodonpa said, still smirking smugly. "But with some help, I managed to revive him… Thanks to you!" He pointed at Isaac, Garet, Ivan and Mia.
"Us?" Ivan asked, confused. "Why would we help you?"
"Yes… the four of you…" he replied. "You dropped this when you were fighting Toadonpa… and it was very good that you did…" He reached inside his tattered traveling cloak and held up a small jar. A few drops of a glistening, gold liquid were still inside and they shone brightly in Sol's rays of light. The Adepts stared at the fluid and realised what it was before long. Picard was the first to speak up.
"…The Water of Life…"
"So that was why I found some Water of Life missing back then…" Mia said. "It's all my fault Toadonpa's back again… I'm so sorry, guys… I indirectly caused this."
"It's okay, Mia," Isaac comforted her. "You didn't know this would happen, and any of us could dropped by accident. Besides, he wasn't very hard to defeat even back then…"
"Plus, we've grown so much stronger so should be a pushover. It's going to be no sweat at all—we've also got the advantage in numbers," Garet remarked, drawing the Darksword from its leather scabbard. The rest of them nodded in agreement, and one by one, all drew their swords and staffs and readied themselves for battle.
"Still, we don't know what he's up to," Ivan warned the rest of them as he unsheathed the Tisiphone Edge. "And Toadonpa is weak against the Mars element and resists Mercury-based attacks." The rest nodded, meaning that they understood.
"Go, Toadonpa!" Dodonpa ordered. The repulsive amphibian sprang forward and lunged at Sheba. The young Jupiter Adept was quick to react. She dodged the blow agilely, leaping back away from it. She raised her Lachesis' Rule and yelled, "Apocalypse!"
The translucent apparition of Lachesis appeared. Though she did not look especially intimidating, she lashed at Toadonpa with strong force, and it was thrown back from the impact of the attack. Ivan and Jenna grabbed the chance to cast Destruct Ray and Dragon Fume respectively. Lightning bolts were magically conjured and they struck their target. Similarly, a titanic plume of vermilion flames shaped in a dragonhead appeared from the tip of the Tisiphone Edge and crashed heavily into it.
Dodonpa was starting to get nervous and all the confidence before seemed to have disappeared completely. Even though he was dealing with eight teenagers, Toadonpa was being rapidly attacked by some invisible forces they were controlling. Those invisible forces were helping those teenagers a lot and they were gaining the upper hand. He did not know what to do…
As Toadonpa got up, Isaac raised the Sol Blade high and bellowed, "Megiddo!" The Venus Adept leapt up high in the air and hurled a giant meteor at the toad. Charging down at breakneck speed and tremendous force, the meteor crashed into the toad, making it fall back for the second time at the same time bringing it closer to defeat. Felix then cast Odyssey, one of the strongest Venus Psynergy attacks. The three colossal swords made entirely out of Venus Psynergy pierced through Toadonpa, giving it a fairly large amount of damage. It got up as quickly as it could, this time casting an unfamiliar attack neither of them had ever seen before.
A violet-black source of pulsating energy slowly formed in front of its mouth and grew in size until it was the size of a full-grown man. As it did, the Adepts readied themselves for what would happen next. All of a sudden, the gargantuan orb stopped growing and charged at the eight of them. It slammed them back and some of them had slight injuries. Still, they each suffered quite an amount of damage. Dodonpa smirked at this; maybe he would win after all. The new skill Toadonpa had learnt was definitely useful…
"I've never seen that before!" Sheba remarked, getting on her feet. "Is everyone okay?" Everyone else nodded slightly and got up.
How could he attack twice in a row? Jenna wondered, as she, too, got to her feet.
"Still, that resembled the Fusion Dragon's Outer Space attack and the Doom Dragon's Cruel Ruin a lot… Pure Wish!" Mia said. Everyone instantly felt more invigorated and thanked the Mercury Adept before returning to the battle.
Resuming the battle, Picard dealt a physical blow to Toadonpa with the Fire Brand and Garet cast Liquifier, a powerful Mars-aligned Psynergy. Small but swift fireballs rained down on it and it fell back for another time.
Before it could get up and attack again, Sheba darted forward and called out, "Blitz!" The purple Jupiter Djinni sped out from its owner and flew above Toadonpa. The creature hovered above it and suddenly, lightning bolts appeared, electrifying the being. After that, Blitz flew back to Sheba and sat on her shoulder.
As Ivan leapt forward to unleash Whorl, Dodonpa began to panic again. Those invisible forces were dealing rapid damage to Toadonpa! Those teenagers may actually win again, even if Toadonpa had the 'Darkness Blast' tactic. And the blue-haired girl could heal her friends…
The Jupiter Djinni soared into the air and despite its small size, struck its target with strong blasts of wind. Toadonpa staggered back, before the purple-black orb slowly grew in front of the Adepts again. This time, Picard unleashed Shade just in time, and the blue Mercury Djinni hopped up and leapt up high in front all eight of the Adepts. A protective aura surrounded all of them before Shade returned to Picard and perched on his shoulder, waiting for him to summon it. Just then, the massive orb charged at them again, but it was not as deadly as before. Isaac, who was the first to recover from the attack, leapt up and cast Grand Gaia. The mammoth-sized boulders ascended from beneath the earth and blasted Toadonpa. As so, the rocks left a large chasm between the eight Adepts and Dodonpa and Toadonpa. Dodonpa nearly fell into the dark depths, but he was, unfortunately, saved when he grabbed hold of the edge and slowly hoisted himself up.
Though she knew that her opponent was resistant to Mercury-based attacks and Psynergy, Mia still knew that doing so, it would still weaken it at least a bit. So, she unleashed Mist, one of her Mercury Djinni, with that thought in mind. The rather corpulent creature hit Toadonpa, and though it did not weaken it considerably, it lulled the toad to sleep. It slumped on the floor, as its eyelids drooped and drifted off to sleep.
Taking advantage of her opponent's inability to attack, Jenna called out Fury. The Mars Djinni sped towards its target and gave a shrill cry. As it did, translucent wraiths appeared and slammed into Toadonpa, hurting it. Still, it still slept despite the attack. Felix raised his Excalibur, and shouted, "Legend!"
A gigantic, purple symbol descended from the sky and suspended in mid-air before Psynergetic swords, similar to the Psynergy Odyssey, appeared from the middle and pierced Toadonpa in its stomach thrice. Soon, the symbols and the swords disappeared and the still sleeping amphibian.
"Torch!" Garet bellowed. Immediately, the Mars Djinni flew out and smashed into its target, which threw it back a few feet, before flying back to its owner. This attack finally woke it up, and it jumped at Ivan, who leapt back and unleashed Zephyr before leaping away from the brunt of the physical blow with his increased speed. Sheba raised her right hand and hollered, "I call upon Procne, the goddess in the form of a bird!"
Blitz, Whorl, and Zephyr flew from their owners' shoulders and soared high into the air before disappearing. Moments later, an enormous tornado was suddenly conjured, and it sucked the startled Toadonpa into its spinning vortex and high into the air. Dodonpa watched, stunned, as he saw Toadonpa suddenly spinning yet floating in mid-air. Then, as the Adepts saw it, a large, graceful bird-like creature appeared and directed beams of Wind Psynergy as it. Seconds later, the tornado stopped and Toadonpa was slammed onto the forest ground. Both Ivan and Isaac hit it with the Tisiphone Edge and Sol Blade respectively.
"I summon Ulysses, the legendary wandering mage!" Jenna yelled. Core, Fury, Mist and Shade all leapt up high into the air and disappeared. Then, a small piece of paper descended on the ground and transformed into a female mage. A few more pieces of paper slowly fell and changed into translucent images of large snapping claws that attacked Toadonpa relentlessly. The toad fell back again, landing on Dodonpa (just like before) as the apparitions faded away. It was finally defeated.
All the eight Adepts let out a sigh of relief, although some were panting, like Jenna and Sheba from summoning. As they looked back across the rift, they saw the limp figure of Toadonpa unconscious on the forest ground and Dodonpa scrambling away, back into the dense Kolima Forest.
"Hey! He's getting away!" Picard said, who was the first to look up. The rest of them, alerted, looked across the abyss and saw that Dodonpa was missing and only Toadonpa was there.
"Let's go, guys!" said Felix, taking charge. Isaac, Ivan, Sheba, Mia, Picard got up and followed their leader back into the woods.
"Garet?" said Jenna, looking back at her fellow Mars Adept, who had not gotten up yet. "Garet! Get up!"
He did not move. He simply stood there, staring at the ground.
"Garet! Come on! GARET!!!" Jenna shouted, getting impatient. "We're going to fall behind!"
The Mars Adept still stood there, as though he could not hear her.
"GARET!!!" she screeched. "COME ON!" Jenna strode over to where Garet stood and grabbed his hand, intending to pull him along, but he wrenched his hand out of her grip.
"What is it with you?" She glared at him. "We are going to fall behind if you don't hurry up!"
Slowly, Garet looked up and stared at Jenna. His gaze seemed unfamiliar to her. It was cold and harsh, completely different to his usual warm and friendly brown eyes. This time, however, there seemed to be a mad glint in his eyes. Slowly, he drew the Darksword.
"Garet, what are you doing? Hello, we just defeated Toadonpa! Why do you need the Darksword for?"
The Mars Adept ignored her and held his sword high and advanced on her.
"Come on, Garet! What are you doing, staring at me like that? Hey! What's wrong with you?!" she shrieked when he suddenly made to attack her with his sword.
It suddenly dawned on her that the Cleric's Ring that was usually on his finger was gone and without it, the spirit of the cursed sword had taken over Garet's mind.
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Wow! This is my longest chapter so far!
Blitz: You call a chapter with 2,000+ words long?
…Yeah. It's my longest chapter. At least for now… Sorry for any confusion the things listed at the bottom show (skip this if you want, because I can be pretty boring at times):
1. I know the Adepts' speeds are all messed up
2. I thought of new attacks for Toadonpa. Okay, I only thought of the 'Darkness Blast' one. I figured the original ones would be very strong, you know what I mean?
3. Toadonpa has way too much stamina then before, but if it was defeated too easily, it would be boring, right?
4. Ivan and Jenna both have the Tisiphone Edge, if it was confusing (I got 2 in my game! ^___^)
5. I also know that the descriptions for Procne is 'a goddess in bird form' instead of 'the goddess in the form of a bird' and Ulysses is supposed to be 'a legendary wandering mage' instead of 'the legendary wandering mage' but it would be weird if Sheba said, "I call upon Procne, a goddess in bird form", right? Or am I the only one who thinks so…
6. I added the effect of the spirit of the cursed item possessing the body if you don't have the Cleric's Ring, even though the original effect was random immobilisation…
Okay, maybe that list is stupid…
Blitz: Mercury, you got what you asked for. Tempest!
Granite: Grand Gaia!
Sleet: Freeze Prism!
::gets blasted with Tempest, Grand Gaia, and Freeze Prism:: Ow… ::uses author powers to heal herself again:: But it wasn't a very suspenseful cliffhanger, was it?
Blitz + Granite + Sleet: Liar!
Um…
Blitz + Granite + Sleet: Eeeeeeeeevil cliffy!
Blitz: What is it with you and cliffhangers, anyway?
Sleet: Putting them four times in a row?
Granite: How evil can you get?
Uh, very?
Blitz + Granite + Sleet: You better update soon, otherwise you're going to have a mob of Angry Reviewers, too. [Refer to Yoshimi Takahashi's fic, Weyard Weekly] Although there wouldn't be many reviewers, seeing as how little reviewers you have, you know… But we'll join them, too, if there ever is an angry mob…
Eep! No way! I'll update soon! And in the meantime, please review! Please?
Blitz + Granite + Sleet: And NO POINTLESS FLAMES, PLEASE! They will be deleted for sure. Thank you. =)